Bromsgrove Sporting 3, Pelsall Villa 0

SPORTING opened the season at the Victoria Ground with a win which was more comfortable than the scoreline suggests.

With better finishing they could have won by six or seven.

Nonetheless the Rouslers can be very happy with this display and their first points in the Midland Combination Premier Division.

The quality of their play was particularly pleasing and it is a pity that only 212 paid to watch this fine entertainment.

They will surely be back as, no doubt, will the man who watched from the roof of his shed.

Sporting needed only six minutes to take the lead.

Danny Deehan ran onto a through ball that caught Pelsall’s back four square, and finished well from close range. Two minutes later Jon Rogers was upended in the penalty area only for Stuart Hall to hit a weak penalty that was comfortably saved to the goalkeeper’s left.

After this, the match, played in muggy heat, entered a lull and became rather scrappy.

Towards half-time, however, Sporting picked up the tempo and exploited the squareness of Pelsall’s defence with both Brookes and Rogers being played onside only to shoot narrowly wide in one on ones with the goalkeeper.

Failing to turn superiority into goals is always a worry and Pelsall threatened as half-time approached. Dunet fell over rather comically as he tried to turn and shoot but nearly had the last laugh a minute later as he played Green’s pass into the path of Smith whose close range shot was well saved by Chris Mole.

That was however the last we saw of Pelsall as an attacking force.

Only a minute into the second period, Brookes ran through to score a fine individual goal which ended the game as a contest.

As Sporting dominated, Draper, Blake and Hall all went close before the Rouslers scored a quite superb third goal after 78 minutes. Brookes chipped in a free-kick from the right to Rogers who scored with a spectacular volley. It could have been four soon after as a fine passing move opened up Pelsall only for Rogers to hit the post.

A good performance then and three well-deserved points. There are surely grounds for cautious optimism even after just two games.

Sporting: Mole, Martin, Parker, Thurbon (Wilkes 78), Brookes, Roberts, Draper, Blake, Rogers, Hall (Morrison 72), Deehan (Bright 63). Subs not used: Kelly, Jenvey Pelsall: Hughes, Lawley, Timmins, Simpson, Hunt, Lewis, Smith (Morley 83), Williams (Grove 50), Dunet, Battison, Green. Subs not used: Ward, Cooke, Drake. Referee: B Morris (Hereford).